Magic of Proportions

Magic of Proportions Shrikant Soman
Methods of Making Vedic Altar Shrikant Vasudeo
The fire altars symbolized the universe and thee were three types of altars representing the earth, the space and the sky. The altar for theeart was drawn as circular whereas the sky (or heaven) was drawn as square. The geometric problems of circulature of a square and that of squaring a circle are a result of equating the earth and the sky altars.

The fire altars were surrounded by 360 enclosing stones, of these 21 were around the earth altar, 78 around the space altar and 261 around the sky altar. In other words, the earth, the space, and the sky are symbolically assigned number 21, 78 and 261. Considering the earth / cosmos dichotomy, the two numbers are 21 and 339 since cosmos includes the space and the sky…..

These altars were built in five layers, of a thousand bricks of specified shapes. The construction of these altars required the solution to several geometric and algebraic problems.